HDTV/3D TV News
The IPTV set-top box (STB) market grew 55% in 2008, but this rapid growth is set to be dampened by the economic climate, In-Stat warned yesterday.
The market analyst said unit sales in 2009 and 2010 will remain consistent with 2008 levels but will not grow significantly because many telcos have already launched TV services, leaving fewer new customer prospects.
“Established telco TV providers like France Telecom, AT&T, Free, British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, and China Telecom provided much of the subscriber growth that drives the demand for IP set top boxes,” says Michelle Abraham, In-Stat analyst.
“We expect this situation to continue in 2009 and 2010.
“However with few new deployments, unit shipments of IP set top boxes will see only slight increases in 2009 and 2010.”
Over half of IP STBs shipped to western Europe this year will have hard disk drives, In-Stat said.
Recent improvements to STBs include improved power management, support for 3D graphics, multiple codecs, and open software platforms.
In 2010, the average materials cost for a High Definition IP STB will be less than $50.
A survey earlier this year by Informa Telecoms & Media found that the number of worldwide IPTV subscribers grew to almost 20 million in 2008.
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